art of the Peace | Issue #10

www.artofthepeace.ca A Publication for the Visual Arts Spring/Summer 2008

Issue 10

of the Peace Anne Marie Nakagawa: Difference

TECHNOLOGY & ART: ARTery The Devil’s Advocate Three Graphic Designers

GET YOUR START IN THE ARTS! In the Fine Arts at Grande Prairie Regional College, we offer a variety of programs in Music, Visual Arts and Drama that will suit your needs and desires.

GPRC is about creating opportunities for you.

These are excellent programs to start a career in fine arts and culture. You can complete the first two years of a degree here, explore a wide range of media, instruments, voice, perform and develop a portfolio to get you where you want to go.

Our focus is on student potential and development - we want to help build your future.

CALL TODAY TO TALK TO A FINE ARTS ADVISOR: 780.539.2909 Toll Free: 1.888.539.4772 finearts@gprc.ab.ca Grande Prairie Regional College 10726 106 Avenue Grande Prairie, AB T8V 4C4

finearts.gprc.ab.ca

study at GPRC

art out

there...

Advocate

The Devil’s

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7

contents

20

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16

3 Grande Prairie Artists

12

Designers

ARTery

3 Graphic

A Longer

Anne Marie Nakagawa

Platform

the BUSINESS of art Art Books in Review the artbox exhibitions & opportunities The Last Word

Editor: Wendy Stefansson Editorial Committee: Dale Syrota, Carrie Klukas, Suzanne Sandboe Design, Layout & Advertising: imageDESIGN Contributors: Eileen Coristine, Wendy Stefansson. Olivia Kachman Publisher: Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association,

c/o The Prairie Art Gallery,

Suite #103, 9856 - 97 Street, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 7K2

Ph: (780) 532-8111; art@artofthepeace.ca Printing: Menzies Printers Cover: Anne Marie Nakagawa, photo by Marnie Burkhart.

Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association acknowledges the financial assistance of: The Alberta Foundation for the Arts

City of Grande Prairie Arts Development Fund

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ŠAll rights reserved Art of the Peace 2008 Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

Art of the Peace makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions.

art out there...

High on Ice

T

he High on Ice Winter Festival in Fort St. John ran from January 18th to the 20th this year. During this event, the local Community Arts Council hosted snow and ice carving competitions at both professional and amateur levels. Adding to the excitement, they invited professional ice carving teams from all over the world. Canadian Snow Sculpture Team member and one-time Fort St. John resident, Peter Vogelaar was joined by Russian ice sculptors Ilya Filimontsev and Alexey Shchitov in the professional category. Topping the list of celebrity ice carvers was Junichi Nakamura of Japan; two-time Olympic ice carving gold medallist and eight-time World Champion. His 2.5 metre long dragonfly won the People’s Choice Award.

Dragonfly ice sculpture by Junichi Nakagawa. Photo by Chandra Wong.

The theme of this year’s event was “Celebrating Canada in the North,” a theme chosen to honour British Columbia’s 150th Anniversary. Carvings on this theme included a sasquatch, a Mountie on horseback, and an abstract representation of the north wind.

Vogelaar and local sculptor Jesse Forrester created a representation of historic explorers paddling north through a rushing river, which was also a crowd favourite. ■

The Challenge of the Human Form

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he Prairie Figure Drawing Group, long housed in the studio space of the Prairie Art Gallery, was forced to relocate after the gallery’s collapse last spring. Fortunately, the Centre for Creative Arts has been able to accommodate them and has been hosting the group every Thursday evening from 7-10 pm in their temporary location in the former RCMP building. Sessions are non-instructional but provide live models as subjects and according to group member Jim Stokes, “a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.” The group operates on a drop-in basis, and is open to “all who want to improve their art by the challenge of the human form” Stokes says.

Sessions continue until May, after which they will break for the summer, resuming again in September. ■

Joan by Janet Enfiled.

art of the peace 4

Marjorie Taylor. Photo by Paul Privet.

Taylor Steps Down

M

arjorie Taylor, who has steered the Prairie Art Gallery through some exciting and turbulent times, stepped down from the volunteer position of President of the gallery board this March.

Taylor began volunteering for the Prairie Art Gallery in the mid eighties. In 2001 she joined the board as Secretary, and quickly became President.

Shortly thereafter, the gallery “formed a partnership with the library, formed a building committee of volunteers, and began the process of construction of a gallery/library building, now called the Montrose Cultural Centre.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

She adds that: “I have been part of a group which will leave as its legacy the Montrose Cultural Centre. I have been a part of a group that formed the Art of the Peace Magazine and the Symposium.” And, “I shared in the development of the McNaught Homestead.”

That’s a record that speaks for itself. ■

Balancing Light

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Still from Madame Tutli-Putli, an Oscar-nominated and Cannes Film Festival awardwinning animated short film by Canadians Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.

Reel Shorts: The Sequel hen I contacted event organizer Terry Scerbak to find out what was up for the Reel Shorts Film Festival in Grande Prairie this year, she challenged me to write it all up in a couple of paragraphs! Having read her lengthy program description, I can see why. The scope of this event – only in its second year – has grown well beyond the description “film festival.” Incorporating workshops and panel discussions on diverse aspects of filmmaking as well as three days of film screenings, the festival runs essentially from April 21st through to the 27th this year.

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In honour of Grande Prairie’s 50th anniversary, Reel Shorts is planning to screen a short film from the 1958 era – the year of the city’s incorporation – at the beginning of each package of current films. In addition, it will bring back to the city many “homegrown” filmmakers and actors. The list of locals includes filmmaking team Scott Belyea, Derreck Toker, Riley Pearcy, and Derrick Doll, whose laidback and humourous style made them a huge hit with teenagers at last year’s festival; as well as director Kyle Robson and actor Alex Zahara.

For more detailed and up-to-date information, go to the Reel Shorts website at www.reelshortsfilmfest.ca. ■

he photograph sway by Grande Prairie photographer and writer Catherine McLaughlin appeared in the winter 2007 issue of Toward the Light: Journal of Reflective Word and Image. The work was selected as the sole winner of the Editor’s Choice Award. According to the publication’s editors, Deb Clay and Fenna Schaapman: “Catherine McLaughlin’s photo sway was chosen for its visual strength and power of metaphor. It leads the viewer into story with its sense of journey and balance of light. We found it to be the best out of thirty-plus images submitted to Editor’s Choice.” ■

Catherine McLaughlin’s photograph, sway, depicts a suspension bridge over a small ravine at the Sylvan Lake Baha’i Centre.

Celebrating 50 Years in Pictures

T

he City of Dawson Creek, BC is turning 50 this year! To mark this landmark birthday the city, in combination with the Dawson Creek Art Gallery, sponsored a photo contest. Residents of Dawson Creek and the surrounding area were invited to submit photos taken in and of Dawson Creek since January 1st, 1958.

From 130 entries submitted, 27 were selected. Twenty-three more photos were culled from the South Peace Historical Archives to give the exhibit an archival component. All 50 works were mounted on canvas and displayed at the gallery during February of this year. The photos are now on display in various public buildings in the community as part of the city’s permanent art collection.

Twelve favourites are also available in a commemorative 2008 calendar. ■ Fiesta of the North, 1951.

Peace River Artist Recognized

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eace River artist Paul Martel was selected as a finalist in the first annual Heritage Property Corporation Art Competition last September.

The competition is open to all Alberta artists working in two dimensions. While the grand prize of a $10,000 commisPaul Martel, Winter Soltice sioned project went to Calgary fibre artist Alana Tyson, Martel and the other finalists will have their art on display in Calgary’s historic Lougheed Building until September 2008. ■ art of the peace 5

Jungen Mask Exceeds All Expectations at Sotheby’s Auction hink back to the fall 2007 issue of Art of the Peace magazine. The sculpture featured on our front cover – Prototype for New Understanding #5 by Fort St. John artist, Brian Jungen – set a new record for Jungen’s art and generated a lot of excitement when it sold for $163,500 at Sotheby’s fall Canadian art auction in November. The work, one of Jungen’s acclaimed series of west coast Aboriginal-style masks made of deconstructed Nike Air Jordan running shoes, exceeded the presale estimate of $35,000 by nearly 500%. ■

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Brian Jungen, Prototype for New Understanding #5

Computer Game Developed in Grande Prairie

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ameron Tofer and the team at HermitWorks have spent the last two years developing a computer game, Space Trader, released to the world via the internet last summer. “It’s easy!” he tells me, a non-gamer. “It’s competitive but not frustrating.” It’s designed to be fun for all levels... It’s modern... It’s what the kids are playing now.”

With a staff of 11, Tofer employs both artists and computer programmers. Artists design each character for the game, essentially sculpting them out of pixels. Later, they add a virtual armature that functions in much the same way as our skeletons do; as well as colours, textures and lighting. Artists also design the settings to create the atmosphere of a place. The gaming industry looks for artists who have a strong foundation in traditional arts as well as knowledge of design software such as Photoshop.

Space Traders

What’s next for Space Trader? HermitWorks has recently sold the rights to two publishers, accessing audiences in North America, Australia, the U.K., Eastern Europe and Japan. Closer to home, Tofer’s team has a role-playing game called Quest in pre-production. Though all of the marketing and distribution aspects of the business are critical to their success, Tofer maintains that he wants to keep HermitWorks “pure”, involved solely in developing new games. “Gaming is the core of what we do,” he says. ■

When not directing films, Aaron Sorensen is making music. He recently released a CD entitled Cranberry Wind.

Sorensen Back in the Director’s Chair

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ilmmaker Aaron James Sorensen, director/producer/writer of the 2005 film Hank Williams First Nation, is splitting his time between Dixonville, Alberta and Los Angeles these days. He is currently hard at work on not one but two films. The first, Meet Pamela, is a story that asks: what do you get when you cross a distinguished British director with a Pamela Anderson style leading lady? The second, Angus and Hebert, is a tale of two separatists, one from Alberta and one from Quebec. Both are comedies, and both are due to go into production this year. However with an actors’ strike pending in June, it’s anybody’s guess if the planned summer filming will take place. ■

An Art Gallery Between the Covers

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he pioneer spirit is alive and well in Fort St John! Due to both limited opportunities and limited space to display art, Judi Roberts decided to compile and publish a catalogue of local art for sale representing herself and 11 other artists. The first edition was released before Christmas with the second edition out this spring. Roberts has plans to publish Northern Arts twice a year.

“Our goal is to cover all of the Peace River area, BC and Alberta,” she says. “We do not wish to restrict this listing to paintings. We would also like to include pottery, jewellery, woodworking, etc., so as to have a nice variety of art to showcase, as well as to offer equal exposure to artists working in all media.” For more information, Roberts can be reached at secret@telus.net or 250-262-1445. ■ art of the peace 6

Michael Campbell. I want to know who you’d be in the best of all possible worlds. 2001

ARTery:

Karina Aguilera Skvirsky. Margaret. 2003

A Photographic Essay

by Wendy Stefansson Photos by Olivia Kachman

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RTery – an art event comprised of seven video works and one text piece by nationally and internationally renowned artists – gave Grande Prairie residents a reason to go out in the cold this January! The exhibit was created through collaboration between Grande Prairie Regional College Professor Edward Bader and Prairie Art Gallery Executive Director/Curator Robert Steven. Videos were shown continuously (day and night) throughout the month in the windows of cooperating businesses along 100th Avenue, the city’s major east-west artery.

ARTery lit up the long dark winter nights with a medium made of light. ■ Anne Troake. Sinking: Stories of Cold Water. 1997

Bill Viola. Angel’s Gate. 1989 Micah Lexier and Christian Bök. Two Equal Texts. 2007

David Hoffos. Disaster. 2000

“For me the whole ARTery exhibit is about slipping art into the everyday world, ... where art is a part of people’s lives and engages them in new ways.”

Edward Bader art of the peace 7

The Devil’s Advocate:

Why Video Art?

by Wendy Stefansson

n January 31st, at the closing of the multiple-venue, downtown video art exhibit, ARTery, the Prairie Art Gallery held a Community Reactions Panel to find out what people thought about the ARTery experience. I took this opportunity to play the devil’s advocate. I placed questions about video art that I wanted answered (in italics) in the hands of gallery Director Robert Steven, who also had lots of questions and comments of his own (not in italics). The following is an excerpt from the conversation that ensued.

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Robert Steven, Prairie Art Gallery Executive Director/Curator: Why video art? Is there something intrinsic to the medium that makes it so compelling for artists at this time in history?

Edward Bader, ARTery Curator: Well, one reason I chose video for this project is that it seemed like a good medium to be shown in the dark. Video glows in the night. I think one of the wonderful things about video is that it really allows one to play with the notion of time in a sustained type of manner.

When you see these various videos screened, especially the Bill Viola piece, you really become aware of how time and our experience of it can be manipulated, slowed down, etc. We experience things happening through time and space very differently than we can in a painting which has evolved primarily in trying to engender art of the peace 8

a moment frozen in time. Video allows events to unfold. Things are said in video art that can not be said in a painting, architecture and sculpture. The wonderful thing about the medium and certain new media is that, especially as they cross over, they allow you to work in those inbetween spaces and talk about different sorts of things.

Steven: What makes video ‘art’?

Bader: I would ask someone who has a question about video art, in terms of even the works in this show: “Are not most

of technical innovations appropriating them for different ends and means.

Steven: A number of people have said to me, setting up rules for what can and can’t be art: “Well, maybe video can be art, but then can photography or photo-based painting and that sort of thing be art?” I’m surprised by some of those comments because I can’t think of a single artifact of any human culture that the artist has not tried to employ. Everything that comes along, the artist says: “Hey! I can make art with

“The wonderful thing about the... new media is that...they allow you to work in those in-between spaces and talk about different sorts of things.” of the works poetic? Are they not both very visually strong and appealing? Do they not force you to contemplate and think about things? Do they not change your awareness of your space and place in the world?”

And if you answer yes to all of those things, those are qualities that we have associated traditionally with art. I think a lot of times when people have a problem with video as art, it’s simply about the technology.

But it would be like responding to a painter working in acrylic: “Why aren’t you working in egg tempera?” Art has always been involved in the forefront

Edward Bader that!” So video art would be inevitable, just as asphalt art and paper pulp art and every other kind of art that you end up seeing was inevitable.

But what about the archival properties of video? Are you concerned that in 50 years the technology will have changed so much that nobody will be able to view this work anymore?

Bader: What would you say about a music or a dance piece?

It’s an event… it’s the experience you take with you that unfolds through time. It’s no different than dance, drama,

whatever. You may have a script, but the performance only occurs at that special moment in time. So why does art have to be lasting for 10,000 years?

Why can’t it just be that experience of the moment?

Steven: Do you think video as a medium is more accessible than other media because it can be distributed far and wide and shown in multiple places simultaneously?

Bader: What’s the difference between a video being reproduced multiple times and a Rembrandt etching being reproduced multiple sets of times? It’s just another way of distributing your art. For me the whole ARTery exhibit is really about slipping art into the everyday world, getting outside the confines of the gallery box, the sacred temple of art, and having, in the words of Suzi Gablik, “a re-enchantment of art,” where art is a part of people’s lives and engages them in new ways. To me, this exhibit takes art to an audience that normally would never have visited the Prairie Art Gallery ever.

Steven: But why exactly are we having this discussion? It seems to me that there is still a need for this kind of discourse to make the bridge between artist and audience. Perhaps, in that sense, video art is elitist.

Bader: Well, there are different types of audiences for all sorts of things. There are just different levels of appreciation

Micah Lexier, Exhibiting Artist: Can we go back to that question about elitism versus accessibility? That’s such a crazy dichotomy because: how do we know? Isn’t the goal just to put work out there and let people decide if they like it or not?

How can you decide in advance if something is popular or not?

You give it a chance, and who knows what people are going to like?

Steven: To play the devil’s advocate on that one, the question is: Is it fixed? Is it rigged who has the opportunity to like something, because of their educational or socio-economic background? The gallery exists for the purpose of bringing art to people who couldn’t necessarily afford to have the art in their own homes. All around the world the people who go into art galleries are the ones who can afford to have art in their own homes and the people who don’t go in are the people who don’t have a relationship with art for various reasons. So one of the goals here was to put art out there in a less intimidating way than having it in the gallery. And, to be fair, there have been lots of people you wouldn’t expect to see in galleries – kids, teenagers – stopping and looking at the works.

So I admit that we didn’t do very much interpretation with

this work. Aside from today, we didn’t offer people much insight into what it is they’ve been looking at. There’s no text panel beside any of the pieces.

Lexier: I’m really glad you don’t have text panels beside the works. As an artist, I hope there’s never a text panel beside my work! As an artist that’s my job – to have my work as the text panel. What I present to the public is what I want to present to the public. I don’t want someone telling them how to read my work, and so I appreciate this opportunity of having the work in the public realm without any kind of mediation between it and the people. I don’t think there’s any such thing as an educated audience.

I mean, I think it’s just one person trying to communicate with others.

Steven: I think we all agree that there’s no such thing as an educated audience. And that’s what I’m trying to convince people of. I’m trying to empower them.

They don’t feel incapable or uninformed about deciding whether or not they like a piece of music. But a lot of people really do honestly feel that they can’t make a judgement about whether they like a piece of art or not. Because they don’t know what it means; they don’t know enough about it. They are afraid. Somehow we’ve convinced them that they need to be afraid about art. So I agree with you that the audience can look for their own traces, but the kind of text panels that we would like to somehow provide without undermining the art is the kind that convinces people of that, and lets them feel fully equipped to do that.

Bader: No, no, no, no, no. You just have the art, and the art convinces. ■

Image by J. Diehl and Digital design O Strasky

or understanding of works and images. But for this project I really chose works that were very striking visually, so that if you only saw an image in a second or a glance, there would be something about it that would intrigue you. I think most of the imagery is pretty accessible.

It’s not non-objective. It’s not abstract. We’re used to surrealism; we see it in mass-media video all the time. So ironically a lot of the works in the show are very conservative, because they’re almost like painted images.

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Portfolio Development Graphic Design Illustration Photographics Media Development Art History Print Making Second Year Diploma Option Call studio 2120 at (250) 784-7547 1-866-463-6652 Student Services (250) 782-5251 www.nlc.bc.ca Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada art of the peace 9

the BUSINESS of Art

Artists finding friends on Facebook

by Wendy Stefansson

T

he Prairie Art Gallery is sending you a friend request. It has set up a profile on the well known social networking site, Facebook, hoping to use it as one more venue through which to promote its upcoming events and keep itself visible. It appears that it is using this site as an opportunity to strengthen its virtual presence while its physical presence is temporarily side-lined. Along with a re-invented website with almost-daily updates – brief enough to fit into coffee breaks and commercial breaks, interesting enough to keep you coming back – the Gallery is promoting itself in ways that will reach a broader and possibly younger demographic.

They’re not the first out of the gate with this tactic either. The Centre for Creative Arts in Grande Prairie formed a Facebook group last summer. Group organizer Stephanie Hadley says: “It allowed me to refer people new to Grande Prairie or looking for art and artists to our profile. They could become better acquainted with what was happening here by joining the group.”

'Evening Moon At Kvass Lookout' Oil Painting, 16 x 20”, 2008

Robert Guest Douglas Udell Galleries: EDMONTON CALGARY VANCOUVER

Fairview Fine Arts Centre has more recently joined the site, as have many individual artists who are finding ways to promote themselves and make connections with other artists.

Facebook user and visual artist Marian Jacoba Shilka, says: “One thing I like about Facebook is the ability to post my events. For instance if you go into ‘past events’, you will see a number of my own from which I have sent invitations. People can RSVP or post comments. I like feedback! The event will come up on my home page a few days ahead of time as a reminder to all my friends. I ask my Facebook friends to invite their friends. It all helps me get the word out. It’s good networking.”

Shilka continues: “Another positive thing is being able to post an album of my paintings. All albums have a link at the bottom of the page and instead of sending a huge volume of images in an email to a potential client, I can just send the link to the album. That client can then see the album (and only that album) and can click on each photo for a larger image. He/she will also see the information about the image. However no comments from others can be seen, so there is still an element of privacy.”

Other artists have set up sites on My Space, and even posted entries about themselves on Wikipedia. What about blogging? Flickr?

YouTube? The possibilities for artists to access each other and to access an audience keep growing. If you are using the internet to promote your art in innovative ways, we’d like to hear about it.

Send us a letter at art@artofthepeace.ca. ■

art of the peace 10

PWS

Peace Country themes and wilderness vistas Picture Perfect Grande Prairie

Unique Gallery Grande Prairie

780-354-2165

Cultural Centre Beaverlodge

Art Books in Review:

Wallflowers

by Wendy Stefansson

Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives by Helen O’Neill

N

ever heard of Florence Broadhurst?

Neither had I. But if you were alive in the 70’s, you likely saw her work. At that time, she was a powerhouse in Australian interior design.

She owned a wallpaper design business which handprinted large scale, bright, bold, modern designs. Some of them were organically inspired; many were hard-edged and geometric. Today they are iconic.

In Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives, her biographer, Helen O’Neill, describes Broadhurst not as “an artist” but as “a creative.” Not least among the many things she created – and recreated – was her flamboyant persona. She grew up on a Queensland cattle ranch in the earliest years of the twentieth century, spent her twenties as a vaudeville-style singer touring Asia, and later ran a dance school in Shanghai. From there, she moved to London where she became a couturier to the well-heeled and finally ended up back in Sydney where she took up painting and discovered design. At each turn, she re-invented her life (sometimes even changing her name) and fictionalized her past until it (and she) became larger than life. A driven personality and a tyrant to her employees, she was known for her flaming red hair, her outrageous fashions and being the life of every party right to the end of her many years. In the end, she died as dramatically as she had lived in a murder which has yet to be solved almost 30 years later.

William Morris by Arthur Clutton-Brock

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uite possibly the world’s best known designer of wallpaper was Victorian-era artist, William Morris. In addition to wallpaper, Morris designed tapestries, fabrics, furniture and painted-glass windows; taught himself and others to dye and to weave according to nearly forgotten traditions; produced calligraphy, operated a printing press and invented several of his own fonts; wrote poetry, fiction and prose; translated Virgil and Homer from the original Greek and the Norse sagas from the original Icelandic. He operated a successful business producing and marketing all of these wares. He was one of the pioneers of the Socialist movement in England in the late nineteenth century.

One might be tempted to call him a Renaissance man, except that Morris explicitly rejected Renaissance notions of the artistas-genius. According to Arthur Clutton-Brock, Morris “thought of [the artist] rather as a workman who gave more than was asked of him from love of his work.” Moreover Morris rejected the framed painting in favour of art outside of the frame. He focussed his seemingly limitless energy on making useful objects, judging the art of an age “rather by its cottages and its cups and saucers than by its great pictures, as he judged the prosperity of a state by the condition of its poor rather than of its rich.”

There is something refreshing about the ideology of William Morris; almost healing. The artist neither as genius nor as outsider, but as a productive member of society finding grace and dignity through work well and passionately done: it’s an idea worth revisiting. ■

With dozens of colour photos and a cloth cover printed in one of Broadhurst’s designs, this book is beautiful. With equal parts art and intrigue, it is also good, light summer reading. ■

art of the peace 11

Three Graphic Designers: From Foundations to Freedom

by Eileen Coristine

Carol Adrian-Clark

G

raphic design is Carol Adrian-Clark’s profession. That, and her parallel career as a fine artist, were both inspired by the work of her father, watercolourist Bill Adrian.

As a young girl, Adrian-Clark spent many hours at her dad’s Grande Prairie sign shop, Signs Studio, learning what makes good design. “I’m always trying to hone my skills and look at subjects in a different way,” she says.

Following fourteen years of professional drafting she set up her own company, Adrian-Clark Design. The last 12 years in this business have found her very busy with a variety of commercial projects from trade show displays to architectural renderings.

“With decisions about the foundations of a piece, graphic design comes in very strongly,” she says; “but once I’m in front of a canvas, there’s more emotion. I’m in the swing of it and before I know it something new is going on and it’s wonderful.”

Carol Adrian-Clark, Cloud Study 2.

Steve Burger, original artwork used for the Turncoat’s CD cover.

Steve Burger

V

isual Arts teacher Steve Burger got into graphic design as a result of his work in photography and screen-printing.

Currently a Grande Prairie high school teacher, Burger turns his graphic commissions into jobs for the students. Under his supervision they get experience in design, producing videos and animations and updating the school’s web TV station.

Burger finds a strong link between his photography, screen-printing and his fine art. “With commercial art you are working with a set of requirements, so there is external pressure for the job to turn out a certain way,” he says. “I’m much freer in fine art. I become my own customer.”

A link between art and music is something Burger tries to represent in his fine art. “I’ve been using drawing and mixed-media to represent music in a visual form,” he explains. “I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life.”

The Alberta Society of Artists presents

LL IS ALL

SMA

a juried interprovincial travelling exhibition of S M A L L W O R K S MAY 3 - 19 Leighton Arts Centre, Calgary, AB

Karyl Gilbertson

D

awson Creek’s Karyl Gilbertson decided on a career in graphic design early on in his life. Recognized for his artistic abilities as a child, Karyl often heard people project him into the role of “starving artist”. “I wanted to be a creative artist, but with fulltime work,” says Gilbertson.

At work, Karyl Gilbertson does layouts for signs, logo and identity work and printing. Those tasks are mainly about the client’s needs, but, “I have an interest, so I can be stylistic and artistic if there’s room,” he says.

Concept art is Karyl’s main personal interest. He now does oil painting and digital media for fun. His main subjects are fantasy and science fiction, leaning toward developing character and a surrounding environment and story.

p. 403-931-3633 | e. info@leightoncentre.org Opening: May 3, 2 - 4pm

JULY 28 - SEPTEMBER 6 Spruce Grove Art Gallery, Melcor Cultural Centre, Spruce Grove, AB p. 780-962-0664 | e. alliedac@shaw.ca Opening: August 2, 2 - 4pm

OCTOBER 18 - NOVEMBER 16 Crowsnest Pass Allied Arts Association, Frank, AB p. 403-562-2218 | cnpaaa@shaw.ca Opening: October 16, 2 - 4pm

2009 Inter-provincial exhibition schedule to be announced

To join the Alberta society of Artists call (780) 426-0072 or visit www.artists-society.ab.ca

Graphic effects definitely influence his fine arts decisions. “Concept art leads you to think about certain aspects of things and how they would look and function,” he explains. ■

Karyl Gilbertson, Sword Stone.

art of the peace 13

water hazards climate soil resources humanity recycle reduce reuse

the artbox

The Computer as Drawing Board

2008, the Year of Planet Earth CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Open juried competition for Alberta artists in any medium presented by The Alberta Society of Artists.

Deadline: November 28, 2008

by Eileen Coristine

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omputers have created a Renaissance in the world of graphic design. From printing and sign painting to creating a company’s identity, the last 30 years have seen a revolution in who is doing commercial art and how they are doing it.

When Grande Prairie graphic designer Carol Adrian-Clark’s father, Bill Adrian, operated his sign business in Grande Prairie during the late seventies, his work was very hands-on. Hand-painting and building design plans with hand-waxed elements were the tasks of his day. Adrian-Clark accomplishes these jobs digitally. “I’ve gone from the drawing board to the computer,” she says.

“I enjoy the computer much more.” Many of Adrian-Clark’s jobs are very technical. She is often hired to do drafting or renderings of maps and architectural drawings. Much of this work is done using AutoCAD. “Otherwise I’m using Corel Draw and Corel Photo Paint,” she says. “With those I can set up and format my whole design.”

Adobe Photoshop is a favorite of both Dawson Creek sign-maker Karyl Gilbertson and Grande Prairie Communications Technology teacher Steve Burger.

“Where I work, I use Sign Lab which does one thing and does it very well,” Gilbertson explains. “In my own work I use Photoshop for both graphic and digital painting. It is incredibly flexible.”

Cintiq, a graphic tablet, is the latest technical art tool that Gilbertson is saving up for. “It’s a mixture of monitor and drawing pad and I want it to improve my speed and production,” he says.

Exhibition in Spring 2009 hosted by the Leighton Arts Centre, Calgary, with catalogue and province-wide tour to follow.

Download an application form from www.artists-society.ab.ca

The Alberta Society of Artists

The Alberta Society of Artists is a proud supporter of the arts through exhibitions and education.

To join call (780) 426-0072 or visit www.artists-society.ab.ca

gage

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Although Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator are Burger’s choices for most of the professional jobs at the high school, in his own practice he’s always used Macintosh software. Beginning with iLife, iPhoto and iMovie, he has now become an enormous fan of Aperture, a photo-editing and organizing program. “For me, this very powerful tool has been the missing piece,” Burger says. “By summer I’ll have all my [more than 13,000] photos organized,” he adds.

The design Renaissance created by computer software, and the increasing ease with which programs can be used, has had a parallel effect. On one hand, people can now do for themselves many of the jobs that they previously would have hired out. However, increasing customer expectations have made graphic design a real growth industry. As the technology has advanced so has the public’s aesthetic sense. Everyone now demands, and can recognize, the brightest and best in graphic design. ■ art of the peace 14

Open Year-round Thurs. thru Sun. 1:00 - 6:00 p.m.

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Fine Art Materials & Advice to Inspire Creativity Workshops, Gallery, Volume Discounts Join our email club to receive information www.paintspot.ca info@paintspot.ca Two Edmonton Locations 1 800 363 0546 Quote “peace08” and save 20% on your next order Limit one use – some exceptions apply - expires 30/08/08

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Local Artwork on display

Experiencing

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Grande Prairie City Hall Foyer June 12th to September 11th, 2008 Closing Reception & Sale, September 11th, 7pm.

Winter Scene Graineries, Watercolour by Dale Syrota

www.gppl.ab.ca

Ph: (780) 532-3580

9910 99 Ave. Grande Prairie

art of the peace 15

Anne Marie Nakagawa:

Difference

Video still of Chinese Canadian poet Fred Wah captured from Anne Marie Nakagawa’s feature film Between: Living in the Hyphen.

art of the peace 16

by Wendy Stefansson

W

hen I catch up with Anne Marie Nakagawa, she is at the Banff Centre for the Arts, deeply immersed in a threeweek-long workshop called “Women in the Director’s Chair.” This residency is intended to develop Nakagawa’s skills as a filmmaker in the area of fictional storytelling for both film and television; a new direction for her in an already varied and accomplished career.

The path that has brought Nakagawa to this point has traversed three continents and several areas of study; not to mention a number of art media.

She grew up in Japan, Mexico, Brazil and here in Fairview, Alberta where her mother still lives. Born to a Japanese father and a mother of Irish-Scottish

yourself by what is resisting you.” At the very least one finds out what one is not, reaching an understanding of oneself in contrast to what (or who) is around one. Defining oneself in terms of difference.

Wah is one of seven “hyphenated Canadians” – people of mixed racial backgrounds – whom Nakagawa interviews in Between: Living in the Hyphen, a feature-length documentary she wrote and directed for the National Film Board in 2005.

In allowing each of the speakers to tell his or her story of being half one race and half another, she arrives at a larger and more universal story of race and identity – of difference – which is also her own story.

weaving together fragmented and overlapping narratives to create a bigger story. Throughout, Nakagawa inserts what she describes as “rhythmic flashes of images” which function as illustrations for the stories being told. On another level, Nakagawa uses her craft as a filmmaker to add her own visual interpretation. For example, when each speaker is first introduced, he/she is shown in black and white as if to deliberately obscure the colour of his/her skin – to erase considerations of race – by showing all of them in the same neutral grey against a (significantly) white background. Faces appear by halves, the other halves invisible off screen. Alternatively, the face of speaker Shannon Waters is repeated a

hood selves projected over their present-day faces, inescapably foregrounding their backgrounds. The entire film is framed, opening and closing, with an image of Wah standing in the narrow space between two windowless brick walls.

It is the kind of space found in every downtown between commercial buildings; the kind of space in which trash collects and sometimes the homeless take shelter. A place between.

Because of Nakagawa’s background in the visual arts – she studied for a year at the Parsons School of Design, for two years at Grande Prairie Regional College, and received her Masters degree in Fine Arts from the University of Calgary in 1999 – she was sensitive to

Video stills from Between: Living in the Hyphen. From left to right: Suzette Mayr, Shannon Waters, Fred Wah.

descent, Nakagawa found she was visibly different from the white Canadian mainstream at a time when difference was quick to meet with resistance in rural Alberta. This experience, while difficult, was formative.

In describing it Nakagawa quotes Chinese-Canadian poet Fred Wah: “You get to know

Although this work is a documentary, it is not a simple linear narrative. There is no chronology; no beginning, middle and end. In Between, Nakagawa has created something more akin to a cinematic poem - or perhaps a collage - than to journalism.

The focus shifts from speaker to speaker, from voice to voice,

number of times receding into the blue distance, each image less recognizable than the last.

This cinematic multiplication and division echoes the speakers’ stories of half-ness and of distortion, of being repeatedly misunderstood. At other times, speakers have photographs of their families or of their child-

the aesthetics of Between. She controlled the lighting, composition and colour temperatures, just like a painter would in his or her work. But the theme developed out of her personal background, not her artistic one.

This theme is one that Nakaart of the peace 17

Video stills from Omukai: Facing the Window Seat, 2000

Video stills from Strip Mall Tease, 2001

gawa was already beginning to develop in Omukai: Facing the Window Seat, a 5-minute video art piece which she made in 2000. In it, images of a woman walking away from us through a Japanese airport trailing a wheeled suitcase flash (literally) from dark to light, negative to positive; at all times grainy and sometimes difficult to discern. The effect is one of ambivalence. The images are of relocation or of travel; of being between places.

selves, manufactured to contain consumer items, are empty, their contents long forgotten.

Packaged draws a parallel between those consumer objects and women, each packaged for purposes of consumption.

In other work, particularly in her work from the 1990’s, Nakagawa’s concerns with difference, identity and inequality manifest themselves centrally in works about women’s issues. Much of it is unapologetically feminist in both content and form, because just as “identity is very relative to where you come from,” she explains, “Gender is too. Being a woman in Canada is very different from being a woman in Japan.”

In Strip Mall Tease, an 8 1/2 minute video from 2001, Nakagawa collages together footage of women’s legs as they walk (bodiless, faceless, without identity except for what their shoes communicate) through a shopping mall in Japan. The seductiveness of both footwear and wearer – particularly of one woman in a pair of knee-

art of the peace 18

high black platform boots – contrasts with the bright, shiny (but similarly anonymous) surfaces of floor, wall, escalator. Set to a soundtrack of ambient mall noise including announcements in Japanese, the piece takes on – for an English-speaking audience – a further degree of anonymity, or maybe impenetrability. Except that, being female, the wearers are eminently – perhaps definitively – penetrable. The images speak to an inherent irony in the action of a woman purchasing consumer goods which will in turn make her an object of desire.

In Packaged, a 1999 installation work, Nakagawa makes the connection between our culture’s fetishism surrounding feet and shoes – using Barbie shoes as a stand-in for all high heels – and the long-held custom of binding young girls’ feet in former times in China.

She concludes that stilettos and binding cloths serve essentially the same function, that of packaging female beauty for the enjoyment of a male audience. Nakagawa elaborates on this idea by rolling, wrapping, twisting and binding 1200 individual plastic shopping bags with thread. She then displays these miniature sculptures in a grid on a gallery wall, each of them with Barbie shoes perched on top. The bags them-

Barbie-style fashion dolls figure prominently in a series of found object assemblages from this period, signifying unachievable ideals which have subsumed more realistic, complex and inclusive concepts of the female in western society. In

viewers are required to make a choice. Whether they choose to view the “idealized” images or the reality-based ones, they cannot view women from both perspectives at once. The contrast between the two videos illustrates the position in which many women find themselves; confronted with their own difference from the so-called ideal, and stuck between two unsatisfactory options.

Nakagawa explains she has, “always thought of herself as

In Between: Living in the Hyphen, Nakagawa has created something more akin to a cinematic poem - or perhaps a collage - than to journalism.

Projection (1999), the fashion doll works culminate in a dual channel video installation, one of Nakagawa’s first forays into the filmic. She creates two four-minute videos, both of which depict women, girls and objects which represent them.

One of the videos depicts real people while the other depicts images of women interpreted to suit male fantasies, including images of fashion dolls.

Because the two videos are screened on opposing walls,

a cultural anthropologist, taking artifacts from our present culture and recombining them to give them different meanings.” This applies equally to her early assemblage work and her later collage-like video and film. She looks at culture – here, in Japan and globally – and sees it through the lens of her own distinctive experience, informed by her background and an abiding sense of her own difference. ■

A view of the 1999 Installation, Packaged

Video still from Between: Living in the Hyphen.

A Longer Platform:

Art, Audience and Accessibility

I

ask Anne Marie Nakagawa – visual artist, media artist, filmmaker – which of these titles she uses to describe herself at this point in her career.

She answers without hesitation: filmmaker.

Directing and writing films has clearly raised Nakagawa’s profile and garnered her new levels of recognition. In 2006, she won an Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association award for Best Culturally Diverse Programming, a Yorkton Film Festival Golden Sheaf Award and a Bronze Plaque Award from Columbus International Film and Video Festival for Between: Living in the Hyphen. It was screened before the United Nations Association of Canada at the launch of their Sense of Belonging event in Montreal.

Between moved her work out of galleries and onto television networks (The Documentary Channel) and other venues, reaching a broader audience.

Admittedly, Between is a more mainstream production than many of the more experimental works that preceded it. I ask Nakagawa if that feels like a compromise. She answers: “It’s a shift,” adding, “You have to think more about your audience. Some [artists] only want to work within their own set of symbols because that’s personal and that’s what’s true to them. But then they have to reconcile themselves with the fact that that may only speak to themselves and a few other people.” Nakagawa’s installation and video work was heavily grounded in feminist art theory. She admits: “There are only so many people who really understand that dialogue.”

This doesn’t negate the value or importance of her earlier work in any way, but it does limit the number of people who have the background to understand it or the interest to pursue it.

Now she appreciates the “longer platform” her film work has given her, both because of its wider audience and because of its longer format. “The possibilities of what you can communicate are so much greater; so much more varied and so much larger,” in filmmaking.

Based on the feedback she has had from screenings of Between, Nakagawa says, “That film had an impact on people’s lives that none of my previous work really did.”

With the increased profile and the increased audience have come more opportunities. Over the last two years Nakagawa has been able to support herself solely on her film work, making documentaries on a commissioned basis. Now she is considering the possibilities of narrative, of working with actors, and possibly even making episodic television. She doesn’t see herself returning to experimental video any time soon. ■ art of the peace 19

Three Grande Prairie Artists Young artists are finding a forum in Facebook groups and building the arts community – the next generation.

by Eileen Coristine

Stephanie Hadley

S

tephanie Hadley had a feeling there was a rich arts community in Grande Prairie very soon after she arrived in 2001. Nothing has changed her mind.

A chance “stumbling in” to the Centre for Creative Arts led to six years there teaching, drawing and decorating. Hadley also became a tenant with a studio and was the first facilitator of the Healing Arts Program. While there, her passion to build the arts community manifested itself in two Facebook groups: Centre for Creative Arts Grande Prairie and Arts Grande Prairie – “for artists to come together and collaborate and network with other artists.”

Top: Stephanie Hadley, Boyer’s Bridge.

Bottom: Miriam Jordi, Sweet Nothings.

Recently, Hadley left her position at the Centre for Creative Arts to go into business. Her website, www. artsquad.ca, will feature projects which assist artists in increasing their exposure and selling their art.

Through it, she will also be able to advertise her services and build an artist database.

Hadley will also be devoting a greater portion of her time to her own personal projects. “I paint with watercolours, acrylics and recently began using oils – which I love!” Hadley says. “I also enjoy sculpting and creating things with natural materials such as clay and stone. I’ve done many decorative tiling projects – this might be my favourite medium.”

“I believe that the arts community in this region is incredibly rich but somewhat fragmented due to Grande Prairie being the melting pot that it is,” says Hadley. “I have a passion to bring the arts community together and I don’t plan to give that up.” With her passion for local art igniting others, the Grande Prairie art scene is in for incredibly exciting times – starting now.

Miriam Jordi

B

elieving she is an artist by nature, Miriam Jordi is nurturing her children in a tradition of artistic mentoring.

Although she works in a variety of media, these days she always has a painting on the go. What she calls “the practical nature of painting” allows her to keep working on a piece even while being intensely involved in raising small children.

“Acrylics, watercolours and oils, I love them all!” she explains. “Because I like to rework paintings I can leave them and come back with fresh eyes.”

Grande Prairie has been home for Jordi for the past six years. Finding other young artists in the rapidly growing city seemed tough at first. “The community is being built all the time by people from everywhere,” Jordi says. “It’s like a new city has moved here and there’s a new 30’s demographic. The arts community here is very established but of a different generation.”

Membership in the two Facebook groups helped Jordi connect with local artists.

“It is an extremely positive thing,” she says. “Where else can so many people see your work?”

Olivia Kachman

O

Kachman has recently left a full-time job as a photojournalist to start a business called Visual Cocktail. In what she calls “serving up photography with a twist�, she is moving toward mixed-media images. “Grande Prairies’ many, many painters have influenced me to be experimental,� Kachman says. “It’s fun on occasion to alter a photograph with editing or painting to make it abstract. This satisfies both sides of my personality.�

At this point in her evolution as she describes it, Kachman is a photojournalist with an artist emerging. She is starting a new media project. Using audio, visual arts, documentary photography, music and poetry, she is going to investigate the Alberta Advantage through the eyes and voices of Grande Prairie.

Kachman is a member of both of Hadley’s Facebook groups. Although she describes such groups as fantastic for networking and discussion, she cautions artists to be aware of the legal implications of putting their images on Facebook. “Make sure you know the terms and conditions,â€? she warns. â–

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Fairview Fine Arts Centre

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Unique.

Local Art. No GST. Open Noon to 5 pm, Tuesday to Saturday 10812 103 Ave. 780-835-2697 finearts@telus.net

art of the peace 21

BEAVERLODGE, ALBERTA

• McNaught Homestead

• Beaverlodge Cultural Centre

Events

Quilting through the Times” Piecemakers Quilters Guild September 9th – October 4th

2008 McNaught Festival At the McNaught Homestead July 25th, 26th & 27th

Peace Watercolour Society October 11th – November 8th

Programs

Programs

Exhibits & Events All shows & sales open at 2 pm at the Centre.

Darlene Dautel & Vivian Farnsworth Show & Sale April 27th – May 30th Art Students from Beaverlodge Regional High School June 1st – 13th

Following Betty’s Trail Plein Air Watermedia Workshop with Jerry Heine May 23rd – 25th Photography as an Art Form with Don Pettit.

May 24th, 25th For information & registration contact Dale Syrota 780-539-4046.

exhibitions & opportunities

Refer to the Galley Directory for locations, contact information and hours.

Permanent Collection - Robert Guest June 14th – 27th Nature’s Gallery Show & Sale June 29th – July 25th Paul Martel Show & Sale July 27th – August 29th Coralie Rycroft Show & Sale August 31st – September 26th Sean McPherson Show & Sale September 28th – October 31st

Programs Ongoing programs in pottery, stained glass, batik, weaving, acrylic, oil and watercolour painting classes for a variety of ages.

Please call Debbie, 780-354-3600 for dates and details.

Opportunities Gallery exhibition and gift shop sales opportunities are available.

Please call Debbie at 780-354-3600 for further information.

Photography for the Digital Age Instructor: Trent Ernst Tuesdays, May 6th – 20th or June 3rd – 17th, 6 – 8 pm Peace Photographics

The Centre offers fine art courses on an ongoing basis. For course and membership information, phone the Centre at 780-835-2697 or send an email to finearts@telus. net.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. • Fort St. John Community Arts Council 10320 - 94 Ave., Fort St. John, BC ph 250-787-2781 www.fsjarts.org

Beginner Oil Painting Instructor: Mary Mottishaw Saturdays, April 5th – May 10th, 12:30 - 3:30 pm The Studio at the Art Gallery.

Film Society Into the Wild May 5th Aurora Cinema

Stained Glass: Advanced Instructor: Debbie Chaffey April 2, 3, 9 & 10, 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Peace River Zone Theatre Festival May 6th – 11th Kiwanis Centre, Dawson Creek

For info and registration contact the Gallery at 250- 782-2601

North Peace Historical Society May Festival May 10th Museum Grounds

Opportunities Opportunities for exhibition in the gallery are available. Guidelines for exhibitions can be viewed at www.dcartgallery.ca.

DAWSON CREEK, B.C.

FAIRVIEW, ALBERTA

• Dawson Creek Art Gallery

• Fairview Fine Arts Centre

Exhibits & Events

Exhibits & Events

Mixed Media Students in School District April 25th – May 10th

Heather McNair Pottery Show & Sale May 2nd – 24th

Happy Daze, Rewind the 50s Art Auction May 2nd 250-782-2601 for information and tickets. Tickets - $25 each

Kidsfest Show June 7th – 28th The Fairview Fine Arts Centre Member’s Show & Sale July 5th – 26th

Visual Voices Mary Parslow, Mary Mottishaw, Dori Braun May 13th – June 8th

Ada Lovmo & Eileen Coristine Show & Sale August 2nd – 23rd

In the Summertime South Peace Art Society June 9th – August 10th

The Agricultural Quilt & Fibre Show September 6th – 27th

Colours Primarily Donna Ony August 15th – September 6th

Constance Davidson Show & Sale October 3rd – 24th Kerry-Ann Schatz Show & Sale November 7th – 28th

art of the peace 22

Programs

Hand Painted Flower Pot Auction May 24th, 11 am Centennial Park Hottest Night of the Year Potters Guild Chili Supper June 20th Artpost Arts Council’s Art in the Park and Ice carving July 1st Centennial Park

Watercolour Workshops Instructor: Dianne Bersea September 11th – 14th or September 15th – 16th North Peace Cultural Centre

GRANDE CACHE, ALBERTA • Grande Cache Tourism & Interpretive Centre Exhibits & Events Exhibiting the Palette Pals Art Club, local art, year round. Check out www.grandecache.ca for an up-to-date schedule of exhibitions and events.

GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALBERTA • Centre for Creative Arts

• Grande Prairie Regional College

Exhibits & Events

Exhibits & Events

Healing Arts Program (HAPI) Exhibition Students from the Métis Local 1990, Canadian Mental Health and the John Howard Society.

Opening May 2nd, 7 pm, showing until May 30th.

Glass Gallery Rotating exhibits on an ongoing basis throughout the year.

Programs

2nd Annual Art Board Auction Skateboards as canvas.

Opening June 13th, 7 pm, showing until July 3rd. (The auction will take place both at the Centre and on-line.)

The Fine Arts Department Classes include Diploma, University Transfer programs and courses in Music, Art and Drama. Programs may also fulfill Fine Arts option requirements with FAD credit courses. Non-credit Visual Arts courses include drawing, painting, digital arts and photography.

Programs

• Picture Perfect

Adult Oil Painting Workshops For the week of July 14th or August 4th.

Opportunities

Pottery Drop In Night Mon. and Wed., 7 – 10 pm for selfinstructed studio time.

The Centre has classes for everyone! Check out our website, www. creativecentre.ca, to find out more.

Opportunities Are you artistic or crafty? Are you looking for an outlet to share your craft? We are currently looking for instructors to teach a variety of classes. Interested parties can contact the Centre.

• Grande Prairie Museum Programs Tours and school programming available by phoning 780-532-5482 for further information.

The Robert Guest Gallery at Picture Perfect is available for exhibitions - call Allan at 780-539-4091 for information.

• Prairie Art Gallery Exhibits & Events Safe and Sound June 8th, 2007 – January 1st, 2009 Over 250 works from the Permanent Collection of the Prairie Art Gallery.

Prairie Art Gallery Annual Art Auction April 26th Tenuous Tina Martel July 3rd – 21st

Grande Prairie Art Society

Artists North

New Travelling Exhibitions Maquette to Mural Tim Heimdal September 1st, 2007 – August 31st, 2008 | Travelling Brainstorm: 5 Abstract Painters Carmen Haakstad, Carrie Klukas, Tina Martel, Anita Pimm, Marjorie Taylor September 15th, 2007 – August 31st, 2008 | Travelling Wildlife Excursion John Hall, Helen Mackie, Jim Westergard, Illingworth Kerr, and others October 1st, 2007 – October 1st, 2008 | Travelling For a complete list of travelling exhibitions please check our website at www.prairiegallery.com.

Programs Artist Trading Cards Workshop May 9th, June 13th, July 11th Artist Trading Cards Sessions May 30th, June 27th Guerilla Art Anonymous Public Art Workshop June 21st – June 28th Check www.prairiegallery.com for current programs for all ages or call 780-532-8111 for information.

Opportunities TREX For information about the Travelling Exhibition Program contact The Prairie Art Gallery 780-532-8111 www.prairiegallery.com

Barb Greentree Wanda Hollingworth Ray Laurin Gordon Mackey Megan Mackey

Anne Patrick Irene Pearcy Janet Roy Emily Schudlo Linda Thetrault

Fine Art in a variety of styles and media

Exhibits & Events GALLERY Natalie Green, Wildlife Art April Jamie Mann, Photography May – June AFA Travelling Exhibit July – August Donna Kaut September – October

SHOWCASES Ceramic Artist Shannon Butler April First Nations Collection May – June Antique Display July – August Laurie Wedler September – October

Opportunities for Artists For information about exhibitions contact Karen at the QEII Foundation office 780-538-7583. Display cubes (showcases) are also available for collections or 3-dimensional art.

• Unique Gallery Opportunities Opportunities for exhibitions in the Gallery are available. Call Dan at 780-538-2790.

NEITHER MAN NOR NATION CAN EXIST WITHOUT A SUBLIME IDEA - F. Dostoevski

Art is sublime

Ph: 780-568-3334 Fax: 780-568-2926

Carol Adrian-Clark Ed Ashton Kim Dettling Pauline Freed Dianne Gaboury Natalie Green

• Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, The Courtyard Gallery

make Art a part of your Life

become a member of VISUAL ARTS ALBERTA VAAA Gallery & Office 3rd flr, 10215 - 112 Street Edmonton, AB T5K 1M7 1.780.421.1731 / 1.866.421.1731 info@visualartsalberta.com

promotes & assists the development of the arts & artists for the enjoyment of Albertans!

art of the peace 23

Forbes & friends Grande Prairie

Scott Gallery

Jim Stokes

Edmonton

Wallace Galleries Calgary

Willock & Sax

Suzanne Sandboe

Banff

Quality Original Art

ASA, PWS

Phone: 780-568-4124 www.suzannesandboe.com

Kimberly Boychuk Fine Artist

Wendy Stefansson Visual Artist

www.kboychuk.com

Emily Lozeron

portraying wildlife in a way that people can appreciate the beauty of nature...

780-567-3114 www.natureartists.com/emily_lozeron.asp Signature member, Artists for Conservation

780-624-1719

Vessel, 2005

780-624-8522 wstef@telus.net

Marj Taylor (780) 532-0355

mataylor@telusplanet.net 9506 77 Ave Grande Prairie, AB T8V 4T3

a gallery of ARTISTS Showcasing a selection of Peace Country Art art of the peace 24

Carmen Haakstad

780 . 539 . 4483 www.carmensimages.com

P: 780-532-5232

Dale Syrota Watercolour Artist

Ph: (780) 539-4046

MARIAN JACOBA SHILKA Intuitive Painting

PWS, CSPWC

Exhibits with the Grande Prairie Guild of Artists & the Peace Watercolour Society

Dale R. Sales

Awakening Your Creative Powers Watercolour Classes 780-532-7562 Grande Prairie mshilka@telusplanet.net

Carol Adrian-Clark

Painting from life experiences, landscapes, portraits, horses and western themes.

realistic renderings of nature in coloured pencil and oil painting

cell: 876-5432 drsales@telusplanet.net 9807-97 Ave. Grande Prairie, AB

Ph: 780-532-0846

www.adrianclark.ca

art@adrianclark.ca

www.artofthepeace.ca art of the peace 25

Stuart Barr, 'Light'

The Last Word:

Art Sales Custom Framing Plaque Mounting Canvas Art & Craft Stretching

The Dream of a Common Language

by Wendy Stefansson

P: (780) 624-1984

9903 100th Ave. Peace River, AB

Custom Framing & Gallery

“No one lives in this room without confronting the whiteness of the wall behind the poems, planks of books, photographs of dead heroines.

Without contemplating last and late the true nature of poetry. The drive to connect. The dream of a common language.”

Adrienne Rich

www.frameworkspeaceriver.com

Courtyard GALLERY

Original Works by Local Artists

Lower Level, QEII Hospital 10409 98 St. Grande Prairie, AB T8V 2E8 Exhibition Opportunities available by contacting Karen at 780-538-7583

I

say art and I mean one thing, or many things. You say art, and may mean something different again. We use the word as though it has a simple definition. Instead, it contains a whole language.

When we were kids we read picture books, with images to elaborate upon the words. As adults we read publications like this one, with words to elaborate on the pictures. The visual and the verbal – each is a language that enriches the other.

Languages are learned slowly and with great effort. All of our communications are at best partial and incomplete. Still, at its core, art is – as text artist Micah Lexier said in January – “just one person trying to communicate with others.”

Out of the silence where the words haven’t been spoken yet, out of the blankness of the untouched canvas, the artist is compelled by the “drive to connect.” Art comes into being in the recurring “dream of a common language.”

• • • •

Shannon Butler

June - August 9:00am - 5:00pm, Daily

By Donation Artists Run Centre Year Round Gift Shop

September - May 10:00am - 5:00pm, Tuesday - Friday 12:00 - 4:00pm, Saturday

• 13 Exhibits Per Year • Art Rental • Education Programs

Tel: (250) 782-2601 AD_PictPerf_3.67x2.35.doc www.dcartgallery.ca

101 - 81610:51 AlaskaAMAvenue 3/14/08 Page 1 Dawson Creek, BC V1G 4T6

Wendy Stefansson, Editor Art of the Peace 29 February 2008 9934-100 Ave, Grande Prairie, AB

780-539-4091

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art of the peace 26

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P. 780 . 532 . 8730 9917 A 97 Avenue Grande Prairie WWW.MENZIESPRINTERS.COM

ARTIST TRADING CARDS: OPEN STUDIO WORKSHOPS

Second Friday of every month 6:00 - 8:00 pm at The Prairie Art Gallery April 11 | May 9 | June 13 | July 11

TRADING SESSIONS

Last Friday of every month 6:00 - 8:00 pm at The Prairie Art Gallery April 25 | May 30 | June 27 For more information about Artist Trading Cards, please visit www.prairiegallery.com

IN THE GALLERY: SAFE AND SOUND

An exhibition of the Prairie Art Gallery's permanent collection.

Over 350 works of art that were rescued from the collapsed building are now on display until January 2009.

Purple Cow, 1995. Vicki Hotte

To arrange an individual or group tour, please call and register at the Prairie Art Gallery today!

CULTURAL TOURS

Thursdays, 12:15 pm - 12:45 pm, FREE Join us for your Thursday lunch hour break and enjoy a 30 minute, art enriched guided tour of the Prairie Art Gallery's permanent collection. Current tour themes include: Peace Country Landscapes, March 6 - June 26 Expressions: People and Animals, July 3 - August 28 First Nations Art, September 4 - December 4

www.prairiegallery.com #103, 9856 97 Avenue Grande Prairie, AB T8V 7K2 P: (780) 532-8111 | F: (780) 539-9522 E: info@prairiegallery.com

THE PRAIRIE ART GALLERY

Monday - Thursday, 10am - 5pm Friday, 10am - 9pm Weekends, 10am - 5pm